Auction Update: H Block at $345,041,000 After Seven Rounds

The FCC's H block spectrum auction drew an additional $38,584,000 in bids in the seventh round of bidding since the auction opened Jan. 22.

So far, there have been bids on 104 of 176 licenses available, with the biggest markets--New York ($112,213,000), L.A. ($68,203,000), and Chicago ($16,686,000) not surprisingly drawing the highest bids and accounting for almost two-thirds of the total money bid so far, though no new bids were made on those markets in the latest round.

The H block is the first of three auctions whose proceeds will go to building out first responder network FirstNet. The more money raised in the first two auctions the less pressure on the final, broadcast incentive auction.

The FCC has set a $1.564 aggregate reserve price on the H Block auction and the FCC came up with an insurance policy for meeting that reserve, saying it would grant Dish a waiver it sought on some technical requirements on spectrum in an adjacent spectrum block--making it more attractive for Dish to bid for the H block--so long as Dish agree to at least meet the $1.564 reserve price, in which it is reportedly one of the 23 qualified bidders--those bidders do not always bid under their own names.